You might have heard of an indie gem known as, Dwarf Fortress, and decided to give it a go. After all the game has been so long in development, and now that it’s finally released, you don’t know where to start.
It’s a huge and complex world, which may seem confusing at a first, but the beginning is fairly simple.
So, with the help of this guide, this won’t be such a hard thing to do.
Creating A World
The first order of business is to create a world, and all of the worlds are randomly generated. There is no standard or default world per se, but you can set several parameters, and this process is fairly simple.
For your first game, I would recommend the following parameters.
- World Size: Medium – not to small, but not to vast to get lost in.
- History: Short (50-100 years)- how many important events are in your game.
- Number of Civilizations: Medium – since it gives you a decent amount of civilizations (humans, elves, etc.)
- Number of Sites: Medium – generates a number of sites, such as towns, settlements, etc. Turn this up for adventure game modes.
- Number of Beasts: Low – determines the number of beasts (titans, megabeasts, etc.). Beasts attack civilizations, so they might reduce the population of the world.
- Natural Savagery: Very Low – How aggressive the animals are towards your dwarfs. Very Low or Medium is a good option for beginners.
- Mineral Occurrence: Everywhere – The most important thing for your fortress. Pretty much self explainatory.
With these parameters set, you should have a smooth beginning for your first game. As you continue playing it, you should experiment with these options more.
Choosing An Embark Location
To start, simply click the “find embark location”, in the lower right corner. However, there are a few things to consider, before you building your fortress.
For a first couple of playthroughs, you could consider following parameters:
- No Aquifier – these are underground waters, which can be confusing for new players, and are best saved for later playthroughs.
- Trees: Woodland or Heavily Forested – good supply of lumber, is vital for making construction, charcoal, furniture, etc.
- Surroundings: Serene – so you won’t have to deal with too many savagery.
- A river – an excellent source of water and fish, and it will also provide you with good soil for your crops.
You could also look into having, a warm climate and a place with plenty of material, such as clay, metals and flux stone. All of this is preferable for a good start. As the game progresses you’ll need both Shallow and Deep Metals, and Flux stone for the steel industry.
Also, feel free to play around with the parameters to find what suits you best.
Assigning Roles
Before starting anything you’ll need to assign roles for your dwarfs. There is a lot of roles to be assigned later in the game, but for now you should focus on the basics.
Among the first roles that you should assign are:
- Miner – Pick one and one extra miner, and lock their roles, meaning that they’ll only mine. Locking in roles, means that they won’t do other jobs, and you don’t need to wait for them to finish other tasks.
- Woodcutter – Same thing as with the miner, lock their role. It will greatly increase the job speed. If you are a near a river or a shore, you can also similarly assign Fisherdwarf, for collecting food.
- Hauler – Anyone that isn’t currently mining or cutting wood, should be selected as haulers to speed up the building of the fort.
Move Animals And Designate Zones
Next order of business, is to assign a Water Source. Find a nice stretch of river, or shore and simply highlight it. Fortunately, zones can overlap, so you can assign a Fishing zone in the same place.
Animals are divided into two categories: pets and stray animals. Pet animals can be named, while stray animals are everything not domesticated, so basically livestock (if you can hunt it).
You don’t need to worry about the pets this early in the game, as they would be taken care by their owners. Livestock on the other hand, need a place to group and if they’re not in a pen, they can starve to death.
From the zone menu, pick Pen/Pasture and place it near your fortress (it can always be moved later). You can assign anything to big to be a pet, but keep in mind that anything can be a pet.
To assign pets, select a dwarf and with the dog icon you can mark what you want as a pet. Naturally, you can’t make cats pets, as they’ll choose their owner when they decide to.
Now that the basics are taken care of, it’s time to start digging! Also, hopefully manage a prosperous fortress.
Start Digging!
One one before you start, it is completely possible to build above the ground, but all of the valuable materials are underground.
Ideally (at least to me), would be to start a vertical fortress where each Z-level has a purpose. Each level should have a purpose, and you might need to dig to get stone, if you have more levels of other resources such as clay, sand or soil.
Before you start digging the entrance, you need to move your dwarfs to safe place. Ideally the entrance, would be near the cart, to minimize the hauling time.
Please note, that any dwarf can do labor, if given the adequate tools or materials. Dwarf that have a lower skill, can still do the job, but at a lower rate, or with a lower quality. Hauling on the other hand, can be done by any dwarf.
Digging
There are several ways to dig:
- mining – this will remove the blocks horizontally, removing walls, and you will get either a rock or a soil surface (also known as “natural floor”).
- channeling – removes the natural floor, and creates a ramp on the Z-level, which will be indicate with a small downwards arrow.
If your wagon is near a cliff or a similar area, you can also opt to tunnel in. If the wagon is out in the open, with a lot of flat terrain, you can also choose to channel in.
The entryway, should be at least 10 tiles long, as it will create a boundary and making it easier to protect.
If you have miners with you, they will complete tasks at a higher pace than other dwarfs. Each miner must have a pick, and a standard embark comes with 2 picks. In case that you need/want more miners, you will not to forage more picks.
In the beginning, you will only need two miners, but naturally you’ll need more of them as the game goes along.
Note: Mining near water
When mining you must avoid digging near the water. Since dwarfs are usually poor swimmers, and to make it worse are unlikely to get themselves from an underground flood.
Taking this into the account, you can safely mine if you have at least one wall tile separating them.
In addition to this, you can mine underwater as well (such as mining under a river), under Z-level tiles, but you will need to mark each tile individually, as the game cancels digging on newly discovered damp tiles (the tiles that are near the water tile, regardless of the level).
Stockpiles
Among the first room that you should build, are the stockpiles. These will as the name suggests, allow you to stock everything that is collected.
Usually, in the begging this is a simple 10×10 tile room, and the first thing you should stockpile, are things from your wagon.
There should also be several stockpiles, and not just put everything in one place. A general purpose stockpile, should stock almost everything but: corpses, refuse, wood, stone and gems.
Assigning appropriate stockpiles, is crucial as you don’t want things to pile up, and in turn cause workshops to become cluttered . When assigning stockpiles, they must be in a vacant area, as dwarfs will not haul items to occupied tiles.
So, make sure that the area is mind out and vacant, before assigning a stockpile.
Trade Depot
A trade depot is a place where your dwarfs can trade with the outside world, which is a great way to get the resources that you are currently lacking.
In essence, this are usually room that are near the entrance, with a 5×5 tile space, and at least three blocks wide area so that the trade wagons can enter it.
Assign Basic Roles (Manger, Bookkeeper, and Broker)
Managing a good fortress is all about logistics, and assigning basic roles is crucial, and will make your life easier.
Assigning a Manager role, will allow you to order jobs from all of your available workshops and handle the details themselves. The bookkeeper will keep a detailed look on what goes in and out of the fort, and where each resource is located.
A broker will tell you which which resources have the best prices and any deals with trade caravans that might show up.
Eventually, each role will need it’s own office, complete with a chair and a desk, but that’s a little bit down the line.
Food And Alcohol
What would a dwarf community be, if it wasn’t for the alcohol. As luck would have it, your dwarf can eat anything raw, and this includes plants as well.
Also, each dwarf can requires alcohol, and this includes children as well, and of course food.
For a long term and reliable supply, you will need to establish a farm. These are usually built on soil tiles, and a good place to start is a 5×5 room, but it’s a good idea to leave at least some room for expansion.
Another good idea, would be placing it near stockpiles, to reduce the travelling time.
Farming will requires a Planter from your labor menu. Once the farm has been setup, you will need to plant seeds to grow food.
Some crops can be planted underground, but there are some that need exposure to sunlight, so plan accordingly. As for the starting crops, Plump Helmets are usually a good, versatile plant to start with.
Obviously you will need a place to use the freshly harvested crops, and this are a must early on.
Meals are made in the kitchen, and drinks will require a still. Once you have everything up and running, creating a meeting area, which are usually either 5×5 or 7×7 tiles long. You will need to make sure that the place doesn’t get overcrowded.
To make drinks you will need a brewer, and on a default embark this is usually the woodcutter dwarf. A brewer is definitely an important role, because if your dwarf aren’t dying of thirst, they will get grumpy and unhappy if they only drink water.
Workshops
If you want a long lasting and prosperous fortress, you will need to build workshops. The good way to start is by building:
- Carpenters – this will allow for building of things from wood, such as chairs, beds, doors, etc. Making things out of wood is faster than making them out of stone.
- Stoneworkers – this is needed for building things out of stone. This will take the pressure of the carpenters, as you can build almost anything out of stone, expect maybe beds.
- Mechanics – builds mechanical things out of stone. In the begging, this will be simple stuff such as levers and wells, until you get into more complex stuff.
- Jewelers – an optional workshop, but can greatly boost your economy. Any found gems, can be used here and with a simple cut gems option you have a great way of earning money.
Always make sure to assign appropriate work orders to save time. A manager will help you greatly here, and it’s a lot easier than opening each workshop and selecting each task individually.
Refuse
Refuse is an area, usually outside of the fort, and usually in 5×5 tile size. These are used for storing rotten corpses, vermin, etc. It must be in the open, as it will greatly reduce the problems that you might have with Miasma.
And that’s it! These are some of the basic steps for setting up your fortress. Please note, that you don’t need to stick to this guide for a good game, but use it for helping you when starting Dwarf Fortress for the first time. Feel free to try different stuff on your playthroughs, and remember that failing is part of the fun.
